Snowflake art

I have discovered a new link, it is called Animoto. I love it. I see millions of possiblities with it for my class. I took some of the snowflake artwork my students created after our Arctic unit and uploaded the pictures with music. I taught my students about Snowflake Bentley (the man who spent his whole life taking pictures of snowflakes to share with the world). This led us to a our artwork. After the artwork was completed, I posted my students creations on my other favorite website, Artsonia. This is an online art museum for kids to post artwork. It allows families to see their work anywhere they are in the world. I love that. Very global. Watch for my links to show these sites soon.

Snowflake Art

blogging in the classroom

I am still trying to figure out this blogging thing. I had the brilliant idea that I would begin a blog for my classroom. I researched other teacher bloggers and found sites that blew me away. Not to be left out, I wanted to do the same thing. Created my blog for the kids and had a cool graph and question posted. I had visions of the kids answering and journalling my questions. I thought it would be the coolest thing. Even talked to my teaching parnter and she was going to do the same thing. We had plans to have our classes correspond and do all kinds of cool things with math graphs and sorting information. All this planning and great ideas came to a crashing halt when I discovered my district does not allow this. Not to be deterred too easily, I am working on my Moodle site and have hopes to create the journaling in the sandbox there. Hopefully, will have it off the ground soon and students will be able to start writing online safely soon.

Spelling City

I have been using Spelling City in my classroom for the entire school year and part of the last. It has been a great resource for my students and their families. The kids are finding great success with their spelling and scores are going through the roof. Parents love the ability to help their children practice on line and at home. I have helped my friend, Andrea, begin to use this program in her classroom and I believe it is going well.